Science: A Top 2006 Political Issue

Since George W. Bush took the White House in 2000, the health of American science has come under withering attack from Republicans in government. It isn’t just on a local scale, where Republicans have tried to replace science education with religious ideology. In the federal government as well, right wing activists within the Republican Party who have been placed in high government positions have used their power to attack science, ripping away money from science budgets and forcing government scientists to twist and rewrite their research in order to serve the interests of the right wing political agenda.

Senior scientists working in the federal government, as well as former scientific officials both major political parties, numerous scientific organizations and professional journals, and 48 Nobel Laureates have all expressed serious concerns about political interference with science in the executive branch of the federal government. Some reports suggest that the Bush White House may have broken the law in its attempts to interfere with the procedures of scientific research and deliberation in the executive branch.

There is a body in the House of Representatives that is supposed to deal with such problems: The House Committee on Science. This committee has the solemn duty of oversight of all issues related to science in the federal government. Unfortunately, this committee, which is dominated by Republican members of Congress, has been nearly silent in the face of the Bush Administration’s unrelenting attacks against science. At times, it even seems that the Republican members of the House Committee on Science have been complicit in these attacks, looking the other way while science in America gets torn to shreds.

This isn’t some abstract issue. The integrity of science is a necessary foundation to the integrity of our democracy, as well as our security. The body armor worn by American soldiers is designed by scientists. Information about hurricanes rushing toward our coasts comes from scientists. The medical treatments that stave off death and chronic illness come from science. If we don’t have reliable science on such important matters from the federal government, then we are desperately unsafe.

While the Republicans on the House Science committee have been sitting on their hands, the Democrats on the committee have been working hard to try to fend off the Bush Adminstration’s attacks on science. For example, last year, Bart Gordon, the senior ranking Democrat on the House Committee on Science, teamed up with Henry Waxman, the Democratic leader in the House Committee on Government Reform, to introduce H. R. 839, the Restore Scientific Integrity to Federal Research and Policymaking Act, to the floor of the House of Representatives. This important piece of legislation would prohibit the tampering of scientific research by employees of the federal government, protect whistleblowers within the federal government who alert the public to attempts by political appointees to distort or suppress scientific research, make it illegal for appointees to government scientific panels to be required to pass a political litmus test, establish peer review for scientific research conducted by government agencies, and require an annual report on the status of the integrity of science within the federal government.

Not a single one of the 22 Republicans who sit on the House Committee on Science has supported this bill, not even Sherwood Boehlert. Why not? Why do the Republicans on the House Committee on Science oppose restoring the independence of science in the federal government from political interference?

The answer is sadly simple. Under Republican rule, the role of the House Committee on Science has become to block any attempts to interfere with the Bush Administration’s attacks on science. The Republican members of this committee feel more beholden to the radical agenda of the religious right than they do to their duty to practice ethical oversight. They know where their bread is buttered.

Because the Republicans in Congress, including the House Committee on Science. have been so complicit in the Bush Administrations attacks against science, the restoration of scientific independence and integrity should be a major issue in the congressional campaigns of 2006. This focus should be especially strong in the districts represented by the following Republicans, who as members of the unscrupulous majority of the House Committee on Science, have been allies of the Bush Administration’s efforts to drive science into the ground:

Sherwood Boehlert, Chair
Ralph Hall
Lamar Smith
Curt Weldom
Dana Rohrabacher
Ken Calvert
Roscoe G. Bartlett
Vernon Ehlers
Gil Gutknecht
Frank Lucas
Judy Biggert
Wayne Gilchrest
W. Todd Akin
Timothy Johnson
J. Randy Forbes
Jo Bonner
Tom Feeney
Bob Inglis
Dave Reichert
Michael Sodrel
Joe Schwarz
Michael McCaul